An Organic Chicken Farm in Georgia Has Become an Endless Buffet for Bald Eagles

Dozens of the raptors crash White Oak Farms each winter to dine on its fields of pasture-raised poultry. With little recourse, the farmers are racing to adapt.

In a battle between a Bald Eagle and a chicken, the chicken is definitely the long shot. And yet you can鈥檛 help but root for the eagle. It is a magnificent creature, precision-built to do two things that reliably fill humans with awe鈥攆ly and kill鈥攁nd it looks completely at ease doing both. Swooping down, the eagle unfurls its hand-like claws, scoops up a chicken, and sweeps up to a tree, whereupon the larger bird lays the smaller bird on a branch to allow for easy consumption. It鈥檚 unclear exactly when the chicken dies, but the eagle鈥檚 beak is quite effective at pulling out the other bird鈥檚 meat. After a few minutes, all that remains is a clump of feathers and discarded viscera. These gory leavings splatter anything below the tall oaks at , a family farm in rural Georgia鈥攊ncluding, one morning, Jenni Harris鈥檚 SUV.

Jenni鈥檚 father, Will Harris, the fourth-generation owner of White Oak Pastures in the tiny town of Bluffton (population: 100), is laughing as he tells me about the gut-drenched vehicle. Jenni was unperturbed, he explains; she simply wiped the bloody goo off the windshield before driving away.

What else could she do? The slaughter here is relentless. White Oak is home to one of the largest pastured chicken flocks in the country; at any given time, 60,000 birds wander the land in accordance with parameters. As the next level beyond free-range, this farm never contains its adult birds indoors, instead allowing them to roam without restraint at all times. This also means that for the Bald Eagles that showed up a few years ago, White Oak is an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Photo: iStock

When I visited in January, were living on the farm, where they overwinter October to March. At that time, Harris estimated each raptor was killing up to four chickens a day, racking up a total of at least $1,000 in daily losses. Due to the birds鈥 protected status under the and other federal laws, Harris had few options. He couldn鈥檛 kill them. He could try to shoo them, but most methods would be costly and likely to scare the chickens before the eagles.

So for a time the farm tried to live with them. Harris chose to view the sacrifice of some of his principal product in terms that verged on the spiritual. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e supposed to give 10 percent to the church and we don鈥檛 really do that, but we鈥檙e giving 10 percent to nature,鈥 Harris says. Though by this past winter, White Oak probably gave a little more than it could truly afford: Right around the time Harris contacted the 探花精选, in December 2015, the eagles had moved from attacking chickens only to taking down turkeys, too. A few weeks later they went after the newborn goats. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a program that reimburses farmers who incur losses from protected wildlife, but to get the money, you must prove the predator caused each death鈥攁 complicated endeavor when you鈥檙e talking about thousands of chickens.

Of all places for this to happen, White Oak is probably one of the best spots for the eagles to have staked a claim. When he realized the predators were not going anywhere, Harris alerted the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to the birds鈥 presence and asked for advice on how to handle them鈥攁 refreshing change from the 鈥渟hoot, shovel, and shut up鈥 strategy some farmers might employ, says Jim Ozier, former eagle coordinator for DNR. Of course, this holistic approach toward both farming and animals may explain why the eagles are there in the first place. During the past 20 years Harris has transformed White Oak from an industrial cattle operation into a farm that produces a wide variety of organic, sustainable products. 鈥淓verything we鈥檙e trying to do, we鈥檙e trying to emulate nature,鈥 Harris says, though he quickly admits, 鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 imperfect and sometimes it sucks.鈥

And sometimes it backfires. It may be true that the more natural and more humane way to raise a chicken is to let it run around in the grass rather than live its days cramped in a cage. But the raptor mob isn鈥檛 just bad for the chickens or for Harris鈥檚 profit margins. It鈥檚 also bad for the eagles themselves. The high concentration could have negative ramifications. If one gets sick, for instance, all of them could fall ill. What鈥檚 more, juveniles form bad habits: Picking off captive chickens does not require the same skill as, say, snatching wild catfish from the churning Chattahoochee River. So no one benefits from the current setup鈥攏ot the Harris family, not the eagles, and certainly not the chickens. The question at White Oak, where the trees rain guts, is how to fix the problem. 

The situation is difficult to remedy in part because it is unique. While non-breeding eagles are known to gather in large concentrations in winter where food is abundant, such as points along the Mississippi and reservoirs on the southern Great Plains, they鈥檙e usually feeding on fish, not poultry. Most people who pasture-raise chickens have much smaller flocks, and on any farm you might expect to see a few chickens roaming. At White Oak, if you鈥檙e in the right place, the birds appear in thousands-strong swarms. The chickens tend to congregate around their small homes鈥攎odified sheds on skids, each with attached tarps that block wind and shade seed and water. The houses are clustered in groups of six and are moved every few days, following cattle as they graze from pasture to pasture across the 2,500-acre property. The arrangement benefits bird, ruminant, and pasture alike: As the animals move across the land, their droppings help fertilize it. The chickens also eat bugs in the cow dung, cutting down the number of pests that bother the cattle and reducing the risk of infection by some smaller parasites and disease-carrying larvae that would otherwise thrive in manure.

When Harris took over the farm from his father, it was solely a cattle ranch. Like any comparable industrial livestock operation, the animals were fed on bought grain, raised in close quarters, injected with antibiotics regularly, and eventually shipped West to huge slaughterhouses. It was a profitable venture, operating with only three full-time employees. But as Harris tells it, he simply couldn鈥檛 stomach the unnaturalness of a process he had come to see as cruel. So he had to learn how to create a system that allowed the animals to move more freely and didn鈥檛 require antibiotics. Thus began a years-long evolution in which he rebuilt his farm, moving from a beef-centric system operating only through the grace of nitrogen-based fertilizers into a full-cycle ecosystem.

Today White Oak Pastures raises cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, ducks, and geese. It also runs an organic produce farm and small egg, honey, and pet-treat operations. The pet treats are made with the leftover ligaments, skins, and bones from livestock slaughtered on site. Between 2007 and 2011 Harris spent $7.5 million building two abattoirs, one for poultry, one for red meat. Thanks to the slaughterhouses, the farm now employs about 130 people鈥攎ore than the permanent population of Bluffton. White Oak slaughters 30 cows a day in a relatively calm and peaceful setting, especially compared to the industrial slaughterhouses where White Oak cattle used to be killed, which process up to .

鈥淲hen I was a commodity farmer, all I thought about was how many pounds of beef I could wring out of this farm at the lowest possible price,鈥 Harris says. It鈥檚 raining, and we鈥檙e in his Jeep, driving on a path through his fields. The front seat is his primary office. He creeps around the edges of the fields with his seatbelt buckled underneath him, making it easy to hop out and open a gate, occasionally pausing our conversation to take phone calls streamed through his car speakers. Business, conducted at about five miles per hour.

Today his business card describes him as a land steward. Since introducing his new method, he鈥檚 expanded the farm, each year buying land from neighboring farms and transforming White Oak from fertilizer-dependent raw earth into rich grassland that sustains his cattle. As we off-road around the property, he tells me how long he鈥檚 worked each plot. It鈥檚 been particularly rainy, so at each field he pulls over to inspect the water running off the pasture. On the oldest land he鈥檚 owned, the runoff is clear鈥攁 sign that no topsoil is leeching out. On younger land, it鈥檚 muddied with red Georgia clay. On his neighbor鈥檚 land, which is owned and farmed industrially by his cousin, it鈥檚 opaque.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like blood,鈥 I say.

鈥淚t is blood,鈥 Harris replies.

White Oak Pastures primarily sells its products in Whole Foods from Miami, Florida, to Princeton, New Jersey, and west to Columbus, Ohio, as well as in farmers markets in Georgia and Alabama. Harris is trying to drum up more online business direct from consumers, who he thinks will buy more consistently and thus give White Oak a more guaranteed source of income. One possible upside of the eagles鈥 presence is that the increased attention could also increase profits. After White Oak on Facebook in early December 2015, requests to see the birds started coming in. Weekends at the farm鈥檚 quickly booked solid, an unusual feat in the winter.

Still, White Oak isn鈥檛 yet profitable enough to have clearly warranted the millions in investments made. 鈥淚f you had a Harvard MBA candidate look at my operation and an operation like my cousin鈥檚 from a purely economic perspective, she鈥檇 say, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 the better investment by far, because he鈥檚 getting a higher return with less risk,鈥欌 Harris says. But he believes his way will win out in the end, because his land is healthier. 

At dawn and dusk throughout the winter, if you pull off the road near a cluster of White Oak鈥檚 chicken shacks, you鈥檙e guaranteed to see at least a dozen eagles, some perched in trees and some snatching prey below. A human observer might perceive the magnificent raptors鈥 actions as lazy, but Ozier describes them as 鈥渘aturally efficient.鈥 After all, they鈥檙e maximizing caloric intake and minimizing energy output. It may not be the kind of impressive behavior we鈥檇 like to see, but it鈥檚 clearly effective. 

I鈥檓 sitting on the trunk of my car one evening watching eagles take their pick of the poultry when Harris pulls up in his Jeep. I ask him whether the eagles drive him crazy. 鈥淵ou bet,鈥 he says. Most of the time he鈥檚 pretty good-natured about the birds, joking about their presence, but standing before them he knows he鈥檚 watching money swirl down the drain.

There weren鈥檛 always so many eagles, because there weren鈥檛 always so many chickens. Six years ago, there were no eagles on the farm. Then Harris brought in the chicken operation. By the next year, a dozen eagles showed up, and the year after that, around 30. This past winter that number more than doubled; in one photograph, 78 eagles perch in the towering oaks that border much of the farm. Their postures are both regal and self-assured鈥攊t鈥檚 almost as if they know how admired and protected they are. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how they spread the word,鈥 Harris says. 鈥淢ust be on their eagle blogs.鈥

As much as the uninvited guests aggravate Harris, the chickens themselves don鈥檛 even seem to notice the huge predators in their midst. A Bald Eagle can land in the middle of dozens of chickens and they鈥檒l continue pecking at the ground as if nothing were there. 鈥淥nce I even saw a Bald Eagle inside a chicken shack, just picking them off one at a time,鈥 the poultry manager, Daniel Coady, tells me. The chickens didn鈥檛 make a peep.

Harris hired Coady in May 2015 to 鈥渇igure out鈥 the chicken situation. Coady came to the farm via an untraditional background, having worked most recently as a chemist in an IBM Research lab. For him, it鈥檚 not the loss of life at White Oak that鈥檚 bothersome; it鈥檚 the system鈥檚 inefficiency. Like any true scientist, Cody is meticulous about tracking his subjects. While we鈥檙e talking in a chicken house, I point out a chick flopping around on the floor. Coady scoops it up, puts it on the ground outside the shack, and waits a full five seconds for it to get up and walk. It doesn鈥檛. The quick assessment convinces him it鈥檚 not healthy enough to survive. Coady shrugs at me apologetically before snapping the chick鈥檚 neck with his fingers and tossing it to the side for his 鈥渕ortality guys鈥 to pick up and count later, adding one more piece of information to the database that tracks chicken deaths and their causes.

Even discounting the three or four chickens each eagle takes every day throughout the winter, Coady thinks the farm鈥檚 chicken-mortality rate is too high. It鈥檚 roughly 15 percent throughout the year, though some weeks it鈥檚 higher and some weeks it鈥檚 lower. He鈥檇 like it to be somewhere around 10 percent鈥攆ar below the estimated 18 percent mortality rate the USDA expects for free-range chickens (for comparison, it鈥檚 4 percent for confined chickens). When chicks get scared, they 鈥渟mother,鈥 all cramming into a corner of their house where they feel safe. Some inevitably suffocate amid the melee. Any time it rains the chickens smother, so at any sign of this weather, day or night, Coady drives out to the shacks and tries to separate crammed-together chickens. He thinks he may have a better solution to cut down on smothering: Redesign the houses so they don鈥檛 have corners. The eagle problem is less easily solved.

Harris has turned to state and federal agencies for help. In February Georgia DNR employees visited the farm and made a number of recommendations. Two of the main suggestions鈥攑ut up wire over a swath of pasture to keep out eagles, or move the chickens closer to humans鈥攚ere impractical for White Oak. They鈥檇 prevent the chickens from following the cattle, thus unraveling Harris鈥檚 carefully built system. The farm has adopted targeted noise-makers, which go off in the trees and, so far, cause the eagles to scatter. There鈥檚 no guarantee that they鈥檒l continue to work, however, and the cost in terms of man-hours and money adds up; White Oak has spent $5,000 on noisemakers that someone must manually set off at dawn and dusk.

Harris is in talks with the USDA about seeking reimbursement for his financial losses through the Livestock Indemnity Program, which offers 75 percent of the average fair-market value of each animal lost, up to a maximum of $125,000 a year. The tricky part is proving that the eagles directly caused the losses, and the government demands hard evidence. Coady鈥檚 meticulous tracking of chicken mortality may not be enough; the program asks for other documentation, such as records from a veterinarian or from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or photographs or video of the attacks.

Ironically, the eagles themselves might help alleviate some of the financial strain they鈥檙e causing. As events manager, Jodi Harris Benoit, another of Harris鈥檚 daughters, runs the farm鈥檚 agritourism business, which is exactly what it sounds like. The birds are helping address one of her big challenges: There isn鈥檛 that much for people to do on the farm, besides learn about things like beekeeping and seed starting. (Harris Benoit has had to dissuade many kindergarten teachers from bringing their classes by explaining that 鈥渋t鈥檚 not a petting zoo.鈥) But everyone loves watching Bald Eagles.

In January, the monthly Farm Day focuses on the birds. The six onsite cabins, which sleep up to six people and go for $99-$259 a night, are all booked for the event, and the 40-person workshop ($55 a head) is sold out. Most attendees are photographers lugging serious gear, intent on getting close-ups. Yet Harris isn鈥檛 shy about attempting to recruit them as customers: 鈥淕o home and order a chicken,鈥 he wryly suggests at the end of his talk, before everyone loads into trucks to go see the eagles. 鈥淣ot only can you help us with our economic hardship, but you can be damn sure that that was a healthy chicken鈥攖hat son of a bitch was quick.鈥 

Harris has his own ideal solution, and it has nothing to do with noise-makers or reimbursement programs or tourism. If everyone farmed in the nature-first way he does, he says, eagles wouldn鈥檛 concentrate on his farm. Flocks of chickens scattered across the Georgia countryside would naturally cause eagles to disperse into smaller, healthier populations. Of course, a pasture-raised chicken revolution won鈥檛 happen any time soon, and Harris says he has no interest in evangelizing for his cause. He鈥檚 too busy plotting how to best make White Oak thrive.

On my first night on the farm, Harris drives me past Bluffton鈥檚 main street to the Kolomoki Mounds. Native Americans constructed the earthen buildings sometime between 350 and 750 A.D., and it was one of the largest settlements north of Mexico at the time. The settlement flourished for the same reasons White Oak has prospered for five generations鈥攖he rich clay soil and the warm, rain-heavy weather pattern coming up from the Gulf of Mexico make the area fertile. As Harris and I sit in the stopped Jeep, gazing at the grass-covered mound, he explains why this spot is special.

Harris sees the land as sacred, and as self-appointed 鈥渓and steward,鈥 he sees himself as a caretaker鈥攐ne individual in a long line of people who have tended this land, and who might go on to farm it for centuries more. If it鈥檚 cared for properly. 鈥淣ature abhors a monoculture,鈥 Harris utters often, and it鈥檚 this belief that justified his transformation of White Oak. Farming his land as he does now ensures that it will continue to be healthy, be it for future farmers or future wildlife. For now, he鈥檚 willing to accept his oversized eagle population as the best evidence he鈥檚 got that he鈥檚 swung the pendulum back in the right direction. Not that he has much of a choice. 

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Take a brief look at the history of the Bald Eagle's decline and resurgence: